By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
MARTINSVILLE, VA – A surprise top-10 earned Danny Bohn more NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series starts.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour regular made his Truck Series debut in the NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 at Martinsville Speedway. Bohn quietly ran inside the top-15 until he was swept up in a multi-truck accident on lap 124. Luckily, the No. 30 BMLG / Brantley Gilbert Toyota Tundra was relatively undamaged.
With much of the competition either damaged or out, Bohn moved up the climbing order. On the final lap, another incident left the On Point Motorsports driver with one option, to aim for a hole up the middle. The hole closed, causing major damage to the eighth-place finisher.
Bohn admitted that he knew a top-10 finish was always possible.
“It’s just like I said earlier, just be smart. I came here with a plan and there were times that I wanted to push the issue and try to pass a couple of extra trucks but kept the big picture in mind. And, the realistic goal was 15th, lead lap, and nail all my pit stops.”
Prior to the start of the race weekend, the opportunity with On Point Motorsports was a one-race deal. After a clean race, until the final 150 feet, the Freehold, N.J. native will get to add at least two more races to his schedule.
Bohn will run the Lucas Oil 150 at ISM Raceway in two weeks and season-ending Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We do plan to go to Phoenix and Homestead,” Bohn stated. “It’s just one race at a time and then we can start planning for next year after that.”
Whether this opportunity will lead to a full season, however, depends on funding. Although funding for Bohn was a one-race deal with Big Machine Label Group and Brantley Gilbert, it’s an unknown moving forward.
Bohn expressed interest in moving to the Truck Series full-time.
“I mean it was just figure out what we can afford to do or any sponsors, stuff like that. Hopefully I’d like to try to do the full season (next year), but it takes a lot to get to that point. I wanted to be able to at least do this. So, to do this once and I finished in the top 10, I think it was a home run for us today.
“And then, you know, now to get the opportunity to go do two more. It’s just like, I would’ve been happy with this, but I’m definitely not going to turn down the opportunity to keep doing this. I had a lot of fun today and learned a lot and we’ll move on to the next race.”
Should Bohn move into the Truck Series full-time, he would follow in the footsteps of Modified Tour regulars such as Donny Lia, Steve Park, Jimmy Spencer, and Mike Stefanik who moved up to run the full-time season at NASCAR’s National level.